Lakers Over Celts: Los Angeles 99- Boston 90

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	The Celts got some fine pressing defense, a great first half
from Kenny Anderson and a strong 2nd from Toine.  Just not enough to
knock off the Lakers, even though this was a long way from the Lakers
"A" game.  The Celts were within 3 with 3:00 to go, but it seemed as
though the Lakers were going to play just as well as they needed to
overcome the C's effort.  Pitino started Battie at PF, and Walker at
3, but it didn't last long due to foul trouble.

	The Lakers got off to a slow start in this game, with A.C.
Green contributing most of the early points.  The Celts came out
pressing and it seemed to bother the Lakers (who play without a point
guard).  Slowly, though, the Lakers began to seperate from the Celts.
Vitaly got into foul trouble rather quickly, but Pervis came in and
seemed to do a pretty good job agsint Shaq, (who didn't seem to
excited about playing tonight: early on!).  With  3:00 to go, the
Celts were still within 2 (20-18), but the Lakers, led by Kobe, ended
the quarter on a 7-0 run to take a 27-18 lead despite committing 7
turnovers in the quarter.

	After a slow start, by both teams, the Celts had fallen behind
by 11 (39-28).  The C's really got the press in gear, and Kenny
Anderson took advantage of it to get a number of easy baskets and
assists.  With about 4:00 to go in the quarter, Kenny pulled up and
hit a 3 to give the Celts the lead at 41-40.  The Lakers came back to
take a 44-43 lead heading to the half, despite 14 second quarter
points from Anderson (17 pts. and 5 assists in the half). L.A. had
something like 16 tunrnvoers.

	Walker, after scoring just 2 points on 1 shot in the first
half, came out firing in the third quarter. He scored 7 of the first
12 Celtics points as the C's jumped out to a 55-44 lead.  They got the
lead as far up as 13 at 65-52.  The Lakers, who had been rattled by
the press so far in the quarter, settled down, and began to take care
of the ball.  Naturally, the Celts couldn't compete in a half court
slugging match with L.A., and the Lakers came storming back with a
10-0 run.  The Celts ended the quarter, clinging to a 2 point lead
69-67, despite a 14 point quarter from Toine.  In a weird sequence,
Adrian Griffin picked up 4 fouls in about 1:00 towards the end of the
quarter, forcing him from the game.

	The Lakers continued to take good care of the ball in the 4th.
They got their first lead of the quarter on a pair of Derek Fisher
free throws.  The game was tied for the last time at 76-76.  The
Lakers scored 5 in a row, to take control of the game.  Still with
3:00 to go, the Celts were still in the game, trailing by just 3 at
86-86.  The Lakers shut the Celts down on offense, and got scored from
Horry and Shaq to put the lead up to 8 at 94-86.  The Celts limited
the Lakers scoring by fouling Shaq, but they couldn't score
themselves.  The Lakers won by a score of 99-90.

	The Celts had a nice advantage in the hustle categories, as
they had a 24-16 advantage in turnovers, and 11-6 in offensive boards.
It just wasn't enough to overcome the Lakers .523 to .404a dvantage in
field goal percentage.  The Lakers got to the free throw line 41 times
to the Celts 18.  Griffin, Walker and Anderson all fouled out of the
game.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Griffin, Walker, Battie, Potapenko
Lakers: Harper, Bryant, Rice, Green, O'Neil

Players:
Walker: Toine was a non participant in the first half, but he came
back with a nice strong 2nd half, especially in the third quarter.  he
ended the game with 24 points on 10-16 shooting (virtually the only
Celts who had a decent night from the field), 5 boards and 2 assists
in just 25 minutes.  I was surprised to see that he had only 2
assists, as I thought he did a nice job of distributing the ball.
Once again, his shots on the inside seemed much steadier than they
have in the past.  

Anderson: Sensational first half.  He missed a lot of shots, going on
Kamikaze drives down the stretch.  Ended up shooting just 8-20, but he
did have his first double digit assists game this season with 10.  He
even got a compliment from Rick on his play in the press.

Griffin:  maybe a bit of the bloom is falling off the rose.  He shot
just 1-8, fearlessly (being kind) taking the ball into the paint
against the Lakers size.  I can't say that any of the shots he took
were poor ones, but they weren't that good either.  He still gave good
value, though with 9 boards, 4 assists and 3 steals in 27 minutes.

Battie: 1-6 with 2 boards and 2 points in 17 minutes.  He and
Potapenko pretty much got crushed by Shaq.

Potapenko:  Had 8 points and 5 boards in 23 minutes.  Shot just 3-9.
I know that Battie and Potapenko can shoot a bit from 15 feet, but
there's more to being an effective perimeter player than being able to
hit a shot.  You have to be comfortable taking shot after shot from
out their.  Vitaly missed several very decent shots, I think, just
because it wore on him, having to make so many outside shots.

Pervis:  I thought he did a pretty good job defensively in the first
half, but didn't get in for the second half.  Still had 4 boards an a
point in 17 minutes.  

Williams: came out firing and scored 8 points in his first dozen
minutes in the game.  Got lost in the crowd after that and ended up
with just 12 points in a game high 38 minutes.  He did a solid job in
the press and ended up with 3 steals.

Cheaney: would have been nice if this was Cal's breakout game.  He
shot 2-6 and scored 2 points in 26 minutes.  Had some decent moments
against Kobe, but I can't see how anyone can actually defend Bryant.

McCarty: shot 4-6 and had 8 points and 3 boards in 19 minutes.  Of
course he's more comfortable in any game where the Celts are committed
to the press.

Dana:  continues to be aggressive seeking out the shot, with very
mixed success.  Scored 6 and shot 2-6 in 13 minutes.

Coaching:  I was a little surprised to see that this was the game,
that Rick chose to move Toine to three, as I didn't think the match up
against Rice was a very good one.  In fact, though, Toine did most of
his damage in the second half, when he was back at his accustomed 4
spot.  In his post game press conference (which was generally
positive), Pitino commented that he thought that the Celts still were
not totally committed to pressing, and after they made big scores,
were more interested in congratulating each other, than in trying to
put on the press and get another turnover.

The Celts record in 10-14.  They host the Hawks on Wednesday.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net